New Delhi: After making sporting forays with Jaipur Pink Panthers in Pro Kabaddi League, Abhishek Bachchan is expected to be the face of the consortium which has bought Indian Super League`s Chennai franchise.

Abhishek is amongst the new-breed of Bollywood stars who follow football religiously, and is known to be an ardent supporter of Chelsea FC. He has attended matches at Stamford Bridge. He was initially supposed to be present at the draft of foreign players on Thursday, but was not able to make it due to his prior commitment with his Pro Kabbadi League team.

Chennai franchise becomes the eighth team of the Indian Super League (ISL) following the fall-out between the Sun Group promoted Bangalore franchise and tournament organisers IMG-Reliance. Previously, the city failed to make the cut in the eight-team ISL, with Bangalore, Delhi, Goa, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune and Guwahati making the numbers.

The home matches of the new franchise will be played at Jawaharalal Nehru Stadium. Besides, the Chennai franchise will have the players signed by Bangalore during the domestic players` draft, including India internationals Gouramangi Singh and Jeje Lalpekhlua.

During the foreign players` draft, the franchise was represented by Prashant Agarwal of Play on Skills, which has a running partnership with the Italian giants Inter Milan. And it`s also expected that Chennai will get coaches from the Serie A outfit.